We are always in awe of history.
We can learn about those tragic war histories in many ways, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the evacuation of Dunkirk.
And these wars at the tip of the iceberg are constantly being filmed by major directors in modern times. Brother Dong is introducing a film about the Second World War - "Bing on the City"
"Barrier on the City" was adapted from the non-fiction novel of the same name written by author William Craig in 1973. The production cost was 68 million US dollars. It was released all over the world in 2001. The global box office totaled 96 million. The box office performance is relatively average, but it cannot be denied that its Wonderful.
The director is Jean-Jacques Arnault, who has directed the well-known film "Wolf Totem" in mainland China.
The cast of handsome men and beautiful women is also pleasing to the eye:
Jude Law, who has both acting skills and looks, has starred in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Captain Marvel";
Ed Harris, who is very good at picking scripts, starred in many masterpieces such as "The Truman World", "A Beautiful Mind" and "Gravity";
The beautiful and gentle Rachel Weisz is well-known to the world audience for her roles in commercial masterpieces such as "The Mummy" and "Constanstin";
Joseph Fiennes with bright eyes, representative works include "The Handmaid's Tale Season 1", "Shakespeare in Love"...
Going back to the film itself, which is based on non-fiction and real history - the Battle of Stalingrad (the turning point of World War II).
The film is about the battle of wits between two top marksmen from the Soviet Union and Germany in this famous battle.
At the beginning of the story, the camera is aimed at Vasily (Jude Law), one of the sharpshooters.
He grew up in the Urals with his grandfather, and his years of herding life have cultivated his precise and good marksmanship.
After the start of the Second World War, he was drafted into the army, and after all kinds of indiscriminate bombing by the German army, he finally arrived at the battlefield of the two armies from the Urals - Stalingrad.
And his good marksmanship was perfectly demonstrated in the days when he first arrived in Stalingrad:
With a hundred shots, the enemy was killed with one shot, and more than 40 German soldiers were killed alone in a few days of fighting.
In the process, he met Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), an officer of the Soviet Army's Propaganda Department.
So, Danilov carried out propaganda for him: a large number of newspapers published Vasily's marksmanship record.
For a time, Vasily became a sharpshooting hero in the army, and the morale of the Soviet army soared and the fighting spirit was high.
However, the frightened Germans also send their top sniper, Major Connie (Ed Harris).
He is the headmaster of the German "Tsossen Sniper School", and he has never missed a shot.
The name of Vasily's sharp gun aroused his great interest, and the Germans also intended for him to contend and destroy Vasily.
Outside the battlefield, Tanya (Rachel Weisz) appears.
This sassy female sniper, who was infatuated with Vasily and Danilov at the same time, caused the pair of friends to be at odds with each other.
Inside and outside the battlefield, Vasily had to take care of Tanya on the one hand, and on the other hand, started a sharpshooting with Major Conney.
That's it for the story, a lot of content in the film is worth watching and feeling, let's take a look at the two major points of this film.
1. True History Adaptation
The film is based on a non-fiction novel based on real events.
In 1942, Hitler led the German army to attack the Soviet Union frantically, and the city "Stalingrad" named after the leader Stalin fell into a fierce battle.
The real history is just like the beginning of this film. The German army almost rushed towards Stalingrad with a destructive momentum. The three armies of the sea, land and air attacked and eroded the territory of the Soviet army.
With the help of advanced weapons, the German army easily destroyed the Soviet resistance.
However, God chose to be on the Soviet side.
It gave the Germans problems like bad weather and broken supply lines, but it gave the Soviet army a sharpshooter.
At the same time, under the combined influence of many factors such as the tenacity and indomitable spirit of the Soviet Union's "fighting nation" itself, the German army suffered a devastating blow.
So far, the famous "Battle of Stalingrad" has become the most important turning point in World War II, breaking the myth of the German army's invincible chariot.
Through this film, audiences can fully learn more historical details during World War II, as well as the outstanding contributions this sharpshooter made to the Soviet people and even the people of the world.
Therefore, the historical prototype of the sharpshooter Vasily in the film - Vasily Grigovich Zaice, is even more worth mentioning.
Different from the adaptation of the film, this historical prototype was born in the Ural Mountains of Priulaliya. He often followed his father and brother to hunt in the mountains. At the age of 12, he developed a good marksmanship.
In the Battle of Stalingrad that year, Vasily's marksmanship caught the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Metelev, the regiment commander.
The principal personally gave Zaitsev a sniper rifle with a scope, and asked him to select a dozen or so soldiers to form a sniper team, which was specially responsible for shooting the German troops that appeared alone.
They often set up ambushes near the German camps and toilets, and sometimes lurked in front of the German positions. They used the observation instruments of the German artillery, the sights of the tanks and the German officers, and sometimes they were able to eliminate dozens of enemies a day.
As his record approached 100, he became the focus of Soviet propaganda as a model deed in the Soviet Army.
He killed 149 Germans throughout the Battle of Stalingrad, and by the end of World War II he had eliminated a total of 400 Germans.
During the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1980s, the Soviet Union also vigorously publicized his heroic deeds.
2. Battlefield: Small details are the main, and big scenes are supplemented
Compared with other war movies, the feature of this movie is that there are many small details, and big scenes are interspersed among them.
The advantage of this is that it combines the cruelty of war while depicting more historical details.
Let’s talk about the big scene first, which can be said to be few and far between.
At the beginning, the German air-dropped bombs destroyed many rescue soldiers and ships on the sea that came to support the Soviet army. This opening can almost rival "Saving Private Ryan", which is equally shocking.
The melee confrontation between the two armies; the planes constantly appearing over Stalingrad; the mass retreat of the Soviet people...
Although there are not many large scenes, the general situation of the war can still be clearly seen: the German army basically dominates.
And the planes, tanks, and cannons appear in turns, which also gives a considerable amount of surface, and still allows the audience to feel the flesh and blood of real wars and life.
Let's talk about the small details, most of the content here is on the duel between the two snipers.
There is a place beyond the battlefield that shows the sophistication of Major Coney as a sharpshooter.
He kept getting close to Sasha, a boy who was familiar with Vasily, and through him came to understand Vasily's direction of action, family background, knowledge level, etc.
Inquiring about Vasily's information in all aspects, the intention is to know oneself and one's enemy and win a hundred battles.
The director captured the core of the interpretation of soldiers such as snipers. When the two sides are evenly matched, psychological warfare is particularly important, followed by technology.
Another showdown details a battle between the two sides in an abandoned building.
At this time, Vasily was almost in a desperate situation: not only was the vision exposed, but also the mirror was used to assist Major Conney to observe the movement. There was only a large rock as a shield, and the sniper rifle was also dropped out of the movable range.
What made him stand out from the siege was a pane of glass and a beam of light shining into the house, which he used to interfere with the enemy's vision and shoot them back for a while.
This place captures the emotions of the characters superbly: the two remain motionless, while being vigilant and self-confident at the same time, this is the duel between the masters.
But there is one thing that impressed Brother Dong particularly, that is, the "Five Kills" of Vasily at the beginning.
Vasily fell to hide himself on the corpses of a pair of Soviet soldiers who died in battle, and waited for an opportunity. When the bomb sounded, he fired, killing him with one hit, with five shots and five hits in a row.
The most special thing here is the rhythm. While hiding himself, he also used the sound of bombs to cover up the enemy's hearing and vigilance.
And the rhythm of the bomb sound also gave him more concentration to carry out high-speed continuous shooting.
At this time, he was like a hunter. When the prey reacted, it was too late to shoot.
The ingenious thing is that here they are at a critical moment of survival, which makes the audience nervous, forgetting to breathe and blink.
Overall, this is a very good war movie to watch:
Backed by real history, it restores the situation before and after the Stalingrad battlefield to a great extent;
It focuses on the first half of Vasily's life, but does not lose the positive description of the battlefield, does not attach various unreasonable halo to the protagonist, and does not make war films into biopics;
The main line is focused on the duel between the two top snipers, but it does not blur the overall situation of the battle for Stalingrad, or even the entire World War II...
Sniping, war, people's hearts, politics, every line is shaped extremely solidly.
Back to reality, history has actually happened, and there is no room for assumptions.
World War 3 has been predicted in various ways, but when a world-class war actually occurs, who can be safe from it?
Therefore, peace has become a topic that people all over the world maintain together today.
Bluestone Editorial Department｜Dong Ge
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